25.6. Viewing systemd cgroups hierarchy

Procedure

• Display the whole cgroups hierarchy on your system with the systemd-cgls command.

  # systemd-cgls
  Control group /:
  -.slice
  ├─user.slice
  │ ├─user-42.slice
  │ │ ├─session-c1.scope
  │ │ │ ├─ 965 gdm-session-worker [pam/gdm-launch-environment]
  │ │ │ ├─1040 /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session gnome-session --autostart /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
  …​
  ├─init.scope
  │ └─1 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 18
  └─system.slice
    …​
    ├─example.service
    │ ├─6882 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
    │ └─6902 sleep 1
    ├─systemd-journald.service
      └─629 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald
    …​

  The example output returns the entire cgroups hierarchy, where the highest level is formed by slices.

• Display the cgroups hierarchy filtered by a resource controller with the systemd-cgls <resource_controller> command.

  # systemd-cgls memory
  Controller memory; Control group /:
  ├─1 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 18
  ├─user.slice
  │ ├─user-42.slice
  │ │ ├─session-c1.scope
  │ │ │ ├─ 965 gdm-session-worker [pam/gdm-launch-environment]
  …​
  └─system.slice
    |
    …​
    ├─chronyd.service
    │ └─844 /usr/sbin/chronyd
    ├─example.service
    │ ├─8914 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
    │ └─8916 sleep 1
    …​

  The example output lists the services that interact with the selected controller.

• Display detailed information about a certain unit and its part of the cgroups hierarchy with the systemctl status <system_unit> command.

  # systemctl status example.service
  ● example.service - My example service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-04-16 12:12:39 CEST; 3s ago
   Main PID: 17737 (bash)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 11522)
     Memory: 496.0K (limit: 1.5M)
     CGroup: /system.slice/example.service
             ├─17737 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
             └─17743 sleep 1
  Apr 16 12:12:39 redhat systemd[1]: Started My example service.
  Apr 16 12:12:39 redhat bash[17737]: The current time is Tue Apr 16 12:12:39 CEST 2019
  Apr 16 12:12:40 redhat bash[17737]: The current time is Tue Apr 16 12:12:40 CEST 2019